Our Achievements

Header photo by Camille Munday

What we did in 2022: Achievements and performance during the year

Richmond Park – weather and climate

Storm Eunice, which hit the UK on Friday 18 February, led to Richmond Park being closed for three days to ensure the safety of visitors and then to allow staff to assess the damage and make the most dangerous trees safe.  About 50 trees were lost in Richmond Park and about another 50 trees were substantially damaged but should survive.

In the summer, a prolonged spell of hot and dry weather was a challenge for Richmond Park.  The full impact of that may take some time to assess.

In February we held a Zoom talk for members with Tom Jarvis, Director of Parks at The Royal Parks, on the implications of climate change on Richmond Park and The Royal Parks’ response.

The Royal Parks Movement Strategy

In October, The Royal Parks announced that it had decided to make permanent the traffic restrictions that had been trialled.  These restrictions are the closure to vehicles of the road between Sheen Gate and Sheen Cross, the road between Robin Hood Car Park and Broomfield Hill Car Park and at weekends and public holidays the road between Richmond Gate and Roehampton Gate.  The Friends were pleased that the restrictions were made permanent.

We support pedestrian priority in Richmond Park, so we emphasised the importance of pedestrian safety and have continued to press The Royal Parks for improvements to the existing ‘raised-table’ crossings and the introduction of additional crossings. New Park Manager

In May, Simon Richards retired as Park Manager after 25 years in the role.  We appreciated Simon’s generous support for the Friends and co-operated with him on many conservation projects, campaigns and events.

We have welcomed his successor, Paul Richards, including his attendance since his appointment, at a Trustees’ meeting and at a Zoom Question and Answer session for our members.

Protecting skylarks

In March we edited and re-released our film which highlights the importance of skylark protection.  In this film Clare Balding asks visitors in skylark protection areas: "Please keep your dogs on leads, stick to the main footpaths and respect the wildlife – it’s their Park”.

Signage

The Friends continued to work with The Royal Parks on developing improved signage to encourage better visitor behaviours.  At the start of the year, 30 Friends volunteers conducted a survey we had developed with The Royal Parks into trial signage among visitors to the Park.  The results of this and other research have contributed to the improved signage that appeared in the Park from late 2022.

Publications

For the past 10 years, our monthly email bulletin has provided our members with news about the Park and our activities.  Meanwhile, our tri-annual ‘Newsletter’ has evolved to concentrate on articles about the Park’s wildlife, projects and challenges, becoming a magazine.  To reflect this, in 2022 we gave it a new design and a new title - Park Life.  The new look, particularly the covers, has been appreciated by members.

In September, we published our second ‘Let’s Discover’ booklet for children – this time about the Park’s history, entitled Stories from Ancient Oak Trees.  It again features Olly the owl, now with his new family.

Once again, we produced the Richmond Park Calendar, as well as packs of Christmas cards, individual greeting cards and post cards.

Discoverers

Discoverers is our activities programme for families with school age children.  Events take place on a number of weekends throughout the year and during school holidays.  During 2022, its activities expanded significantly with 22 events (10 walks and 12 events).  They included a Platinum Jubilee Teddy Bears’ Picnic held in the Isabella Plantation attended by 120 children and their families, and a half-term History Trail to launch our new Let’s Discover booklet.

Events

After a gap of a few years, we attended public events to publicise our work for Richmond Park, including the Ham Fair and the Duathlon in Richmond Park.

Litter picking

Our Adopt-an-Area litter-picking programme continues to thrive and has nearly 200 volunteers, including young people volunteering as part of the Duke of Edinburgh award scheme.  This is the largest number of volunteers of any of our activities.  Some volunteers adopt one of 29 areas and others are roaming litter-pickers.  Together they make a significant difference to the appearance of the Park.

Conservation volunteering

Our conservation volunteers continue to provide valuable and effective support for conservation within the Park, with about 25 people attending our Saturday morning sessions of practical conservation work.  In 2022 this included much clearance of rhododendron, coppicing of gorse enclosures and planting of hedges.  We now also have a team caring for the small meadow /orchard in Holly Lodge.

The Visitor Centre - information and sales - and the online shop.

Following the end of Covid restrictions, in April the Visitor Centre returned to opening every day with the help of our 60 volunteers.  With the Visitor Centre open throughout the year, visitor numbers were the highest since before the pandemic and takings were at a record level.

This was the third year of our online shop.  We offered for sale our Calendar, Christmas cards and the Royal Oak print.  This made a useful contribution to our income, although sales were lower than in the previous two years.

Flight paths

While Covid and its impact on the aviation industry has delayed Heathrow expansion and the planning process for a third runway, a separate process to re-configure flight paths has begun.  Heathrow Airport Limited has begun the process to redesign flight paths as part of the Civil Aviation Authority’s UK Airspace Modernisation Programme.  We consider that there is a real prospect of flights directly over Richmond Park, which would threaten the survival of Richmond Park as an iconic place, renowned as a haven of tranquillity for people and wildlife.  During the year we actively engaged with Heathrow Airport in meetings and workshops and in responses to their design analysis, as well as providing our preliminary assessment of the environmental implications for Richmond Park.

We produced a short film Richmond Park - the quietest and darkest place in London so that the unique beauty and tranquillity of Richmond Park can be celebrated and appreciated.

Grants

We were pleased to contribute over £29,000 to fund 70 climate-resilient native trees, for a new tranquil woodland close to Ham Cross as part of the Queen’s Green Canopy.  This nationwide initiative was created to mark the Platinum Jubilee of Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and has been extended to plant trees in memoriam to honour Her late Majesty.  The trees to be planted include oak, Dutch Elm-resistant elm, small-leaved lime and sweet chestnut.

We also donated over £27,000 for veteran tree conservation.

Members and volunteers

At the end of the year, we had about 3,700 members.  This includes about 300 volunteers who together work about 15,000 hours, which is worth over £160,000 to the Park (valued at the London Living Wage).

We thank all our volunteers for their hard work, which contributed so much during the year.

What we did in 2021

COVID, the Park and the Friends

Increased visitor numbers during the winter’s Covid restrictions plus heavy rain caused much damage particularly to paths and put the Friends usual activities on hold. We compensated with making ‘Walks with Remarkable Trees’ available to buy online and by holding two webinars: one on trees (see below) and the other with broadcaster and writer David Lindo, which included a new Friends’ film on migrants and resident birds in the Park. With the lifting of restrictions, the paths started to improve and our activities resumed: Conservation volunteers and Adopt-an-Area litter pickers restarted in March; the Visitor Centre reopened in April and our Saturday morning guided walks began again in June.

Through traffic and car parking charges

In March, The Royal Parks announced the results of their consultation on the traffic trial restrictions in Richmond Park and an extension of the trial to March 2022 to collect additional data. The trial restrictions had widespread support and we considered this support and the benefits were sufficient to implement the restrictions on a permanent basis. We continue to press for improvements to the conditions for pedestrians crossing the road.

Also in March, The Royal Parks announced that it would, subject to parliamentary approval, go ahead with proposed car parking charges. As proposed by the Friends, there were two changes from the consultation, a reduction in the weekday hours, and alignment of the weekend charges. In our view, car-parking charges are a reasonable way to tackle car park congestion at weekends and bank holidays, reduce weekday commuter parking, encourage more non-car travel to the Park and fund the traffic-related infrastructure of the Park.

Light and noise surveys

In 2021 we commissioned two separate independent expert reports into the light and the noise in Richmond Park. The light survey showed that the light level virtually everywhere in the Park is equivalent to a rural area, with some places being very dark. The report also highlighted areas where light spillage could be reduced.

The noise survey showed that the Park is exceptionally quiet at night at 23dB. During the day the average noise rises to 40-50dB, equivalent to a typical office. The noise is partly due to background and traffic noise outside the Park and partly due to people talking loudly or calling their dog, to birds (such as parakeets!) and to traffic in the Park. While aircraft operations at the time of the survey were low because of COVID, the few that did fly over created noise levels of 70-80dB.

These reports provide excellent records of the conditions in Richmond Park. The Friends has formed a small monitoring group to continue this work.

Year of the Tree

With COVID restrictions reducing what was possible, we extended ‘2020 The Year of the Tree’ into 2021. Our activities in 2021 started with a webinar that included a new film ‘The Remarkable Trees of Richmond Park’ featuring our new patron Clare Balding, and over 400 people attended. This was followed in the spring by the last of our seasonal Tree Photography competitions. The final event was the launch in September of our Let’s Discover activity booklet for children about trees featuring Olly the little owl.

During the two years, we donated £70,000 for tree conservation works in Richmond Park and raised awareness and understanding of the importance of trees to Richmond Park.

Protecting skylarks

In March we produced a film highlighting the importance of skylark protection areas in the Park presented by Clare Balding. The film, in which Clare meets dog owners, bird experts and Park Manager Simon Richards, explains why signs and some fencing have been installed to alert Park visitors to breeding skylarks.

Heathrow

While COVID and its impact on the aviation industry has delayed Heathrow expansion and the planning process for a third runway, we still face the prospect of re-configured flight paths in the southeast of England with flights directly over Richmond Park (‘airspace modernisation’).

Our campaign against them continues.

Signage

The Friends continues to work with The Royal Parks to develop better signage in the Park to encourage helpful visitor behaviours. At the end of the year, 30 Friends volunteers supported this by carrying out a survey into trial signage.

Conservation Grants

The Friends was the main funder of a tree and plant quarantine area in the existing nursery area at Isabella plantation, contributing £29,000. We also funded tools for removing tree roots to support our Conservation volunteers, chestnut pale fencing and posts to protect dead wood, a further tranche of fencing for veteran tree enclosures and the construction of chespale fencing around seedling hawthorn trees.

The Visitor Centre, online sales and Friends calendar and Christmas cards

Overall sales were nearly back to pre-Covid levels, and those of the 2022 Calendar and Christmas Cards were actually higher, and raised a record £13,000. A wonderful effort by all the volunteers involved with the Visitor Centre and the online shop.

Members and volunteers

Membership increased by 18% during the year and we now have over 3,800 members. We think the increase is partly a continuation of a trend over the last few years as we have become better known and partly from the large number of new visitors during COVID.

We now have nearly 300 volunteers, the increase is largely due to more Adopt-an-Area litter pickers. In a normal, non-COVID year our volunteers work a total of around 15,000 hours and contribute over £160,000 to the Park (valued at the London Living Wage). We thank all our volunteers for their hard work and flexibility during another very difficult year.

What we did in 2020

COVID-19, lockdown and Richmond Park  

The year was dominated by COVID-19 and lockdown which had implications for Richmond Park and for the Friends of Richmond Park.

The Royal Parks closed Richmond Park to cars on 21 March and subsequently to all cyclists (except under-12s). The roads in the Park were occupied by people strolling and children riding their bikes and the Park became a quieter and more family friendly place. It led the Friends and many others to ask whether some features of the quieter lockdown park could be retained.

Cyclists were permitted to return in June and cars returned in August, but that was quickly replaced by a 6-month trial of through traffic restrictions. With other activities curtailed by lockdown and Tier restrictions, many more visitors came to the Park and it was at times overwhelmed. Litter, deer harassment, destruction of wildlife habitats and erosion of the landscape increased enormously. The increase in cyclists also caused problems for pedestrians in crossing the roads and walking safely on shared use paths. The problems remain in 2021 as COVID restrictions continue.

COVID and the Friends  

COVID severely affected our volunteer activities. In March all activities were suspended, to be fully or partially re-started in summer, then suspended again, then re-started and then largely suspended again by the end of the year. It is a tribute to our team leaders that we were able to continue activities at all in such trying circumstances. Some volunteers, especially the litter pickers, continued to work in a personal capacity when the formal picking was suspended; without them the situation in the Park would have been much worse.

COVID also affected our public education work, stopping all public walks and talks from March onward and restricting the opening of the Visitor Centre for much of the year. To replace them  we made available online eight quizzes about the Park, a series of short walks tailored to the  permitted one hour of exercise during the first lockdown, a set of ‘Tree of the Month’ with the  best locations in the Park to see it, and seasonal photography competitions.

Through traffic and car parking charges  

In August The Royal Parks began a six-month trial of restrictions on through traffic, closing the road on the east side of the Park and the Sheen Gate link at all times and the road on the north side at weekends. We welcomed the trial. It meets our charitable objective to protect the peace of the Park and our monitoring suggested big benefits in that regard; also, many visitors like it. We hope The Royal Parks make it permanent.

The Royal Parks also consulted on car parking charges in the Park. We supported them as a reasonable way to tackle car parking congestion at weekends, reduce weekday commuter parking in Kingston Gate and Pembroke Lodge car parks and fund traffic-related Park infrastructure. It also gives The Royal Parks income when their finances are under great strain and encourages more non-car travel to the Park. However, we considered that there needs to be some mechanism for reducing the costs for frequent visitors.

Heathrow  

In our response of September 2019 to the Heathrow expansion we said that its assessment of the environmental impact on Richmond Park was completely inadequate. We met with Heathrow and its consultants four times between then and February 2020 and were due to meet a fifth time when the national lockdown was imposed in March. Since then, COVID and its impact on the aviation industry has meant the Heathrow expansion has been delayed and the planning process for a third runway stopped. However, we still face the prospect of re-con figured flight paths in the south-east of England with flights directly over Richmond Park. Our campaign against them continues.

Year of the Tree  

We launched our 2020 Year of the Tree initiative in late 2019 and intended it to be the centrepiece of our 2020 activities. In spite of COVID restrictions, we organised the range of online activities mentioned above - a Tree of the Month, short nature walks from Park gates and a seasonal Tree photography competition – launched a second set of printed Walks with Remarkable Trees, sold over 100 small prints of the Mark Frith Royal Oak drawing and funded a range of tree conservation projects. With some activities curtailed because of lockdown, we are extending our Year of the Tree to 2021.

Conservation Projects  

As part of Year of the Tree, the Friends funded three major conservation projects in the Park during the year:

  • £20,000 for veteran tree protection, primarily fencing to stop compaction and damage due  to visitors climbing and having barbecues in the trees.
  • £6,000 for the planting of fruit trees at various locations, to get a greater variety of species (and food for the deer).
  • £4,000 for sallow/goat willow at suitable locations to further the conservation of butterfly species; the funds were kindly donated by a local family charity.

We also provided a further £4,000 funding for other conservation projects in the Park.

Litter and Adopt-an-Area scheme  

The substantial increase in visitors led to a significant increase in litter. In June 2020 42 tonnes of litter were collected from the Park, (seven times the June 2019 figure of 5.6 tonnes), a figure which generated much media attention. We now have about 120 litter picking volunteers whose work supplementing the Royal Parks contractors was critical in dealing with such a high volume of litter. We are particularly pleased to be able to offer such volunteer work to 15-20 Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme young people, who collect with a parent.

The Visitor Centre, online sales and Friends calendar and Christmas cards  

The Visitor Centre had a difficult year, closing in March because of the lockdown and opening again in August with reduced hours and with COVID-19 procedures that meant a table was placed at the door allowing counter service only. Sales moved to card only.

To compensate, we launched an online shop in September, hosted on our website and initially selling the Friends 2021 Calendar and 6 types of Christmas cards, with our print supplier fulfilling the orders. In November we extended this to a ‘click and collect’ from the Visitor  Centre with a wider range of goods available, including tree walks, Royal Oak prints, jars of  honey, tea towels and beanie hats.

The online shop was much more popular than we anticipated, with over 600 orders. In total, including sales via the Visitor Centre, local bookshops and our sponsors, we sold 1,600 calendars and 2,300 packs of Christmas cards (8 to a pack) and were sold out of both a week before Christmas.

Members and volunteers  

Membership increased by 13% during the year and we now have over 3,200 members. We think the increase is partly a continuation of a trend over the last few years as we have become better known and partly from the large number of new visitors during COVID.

We now have 265 volunteers, an increase of 5% on 2019, largely due to more Adopt-an-Area litter pickers. In a normal, non-COVID year our volunteers work a total of 15,000 hours and contribute over £160,000 to the Park (valued at the London Living Wage). We thank all our volunteers for their hard work and flexibility during a very difficult year.

For more detailed information on these topics, please see individual articles in the 2020 newsletters, all of which are available from the FRP website: www.frp.org.uk

Plans for the future  

The Friends plans to maintain its activities broadly along the present lines. A major priority will be the resumption of activities as legal restrictions and government guidelines allow.

Our Year of the Tree initiative has been extended to 2021 and will include funding further conservation projects related to tree protection.

The Friends will continue to campaign strongly to protect Richmond Park against threats to its peace, natural beauty and wildlife, in particular from planned developments at Heathrow and new flight paths, and developments on the periphery of the Park that could have an adverse impact on the Park. We will also monitor developments in the through traffic restrictions and car parking charges.

What we did in 2019

It has been a busy year for the Friends!  As well as all the following activities, preparations for “2020 The Year of the Tree” went on throughout the year, with the launch at Pembroke Lodge in November.  This included the publication of the first set of “Walks with Remarkable Trees” and the start of sales of the limited-edition Royal Oak prints by Mark Frith.

New Friends’ website and online sales

The Friends’ new website went live in February, with the immediate advantage that the Friends can now accept membership applications and payments online.  In October, a shopping page was launched to permit sales of the 2020 Richmond Park Calendar and, subsequently, the  successful sales of the limited-edition Royal Oak prints, which were only available online.

Heathrow flights campaign

The Friends responded in detail to Heathrow’s January and June consultations and over 400 members responded individually by email.  The Friends had good media coverage in the Times, Guardian and ITN News on the effects of noise on wildlife and on mental health and wellbeing, and produced a short video giving the Park’s users’ views of the proposals for flights over the Park.  The Friends also met Heathrow three times to put across the case for protecting the Park.

Discoverers

Discoverers encourages families with school-aged children to become practically involved in the life and preservation of Richmond Park.  New activities in 2019 included butterfly surveying, studying the Park’s moths and taking part in a “Star Count” to study light pollution.

Visitor Centre

At the beginning of the year, Mary Davies and Liz Hunt stepped down from running the Visitor Centre, and we thank them again for their many years in this role.  Diane Peake is now managing the volunteers, and Marilyn Watkinson and Gillian de Beaumont manage all the stock and how it is displayed.  Over this year they have, with the help of other volunteers, given the Visitor Centre a bright, attractive and spacious new look.  This contributed to excellent sales of the Friends’ Calendar, Christmas cards and other merchandise, with the surplus on all merchandise sales going towards projects in the Park.

Sales through the Visitor Centre increased by £9,000 during the year to £75,000, with more than half of all sales now made by card payment rather than cash.  The surpluses from the Visitor Centre go to conservation projects in the Park and during the year included donations to the proposed Heritage Centre, Beverley Brook, gorse and hawthorn planting and veteran tree protection – the latter as part of the Year of the Tree.

Cleaning the Park

The Adopt an Area programme continues to thrive, with around 100 volunteers covering the entire Park, and the Beverley Brook Volunteers Group held another clear-up of the Brook in the spring.

Conservation projects

The Friends funded three major, and some smaller, conservation projects in the Park during the year, often jointly with the Visitor Centre and sometimes with TRP also.  The major projects comprised:

  • £13,500 to fund the second stage of the Beverley Brook restoration works;
  • £17,500 for further fencing to protect the Pen Ponds shoreline and its wildfowl from deer and dogs; and
  • £10,000 for gorse and hawthorn planting and fencing.

In addition, the Friends provided donations of:

  • £5,000 for the Heritage Centre;
  • £250 to The Swan Sanctuary in recognition of their important work to protect the swans in the Park;
  • £250 to HACAN with regard to their work on Heathrow;
  • £625 towards an aerial survey carried out by drone; and
  • £550 towards minor works connected with Beverley Brook.

The second stage of the Beverley Brook works in the autumn marked the completion of the last of the Ponds & Streams conservation projects funded by the Friends.

Practical conservation work

Friends’ conservation volunteers continued to provide valuable and effective support for conservation within the Park.

Public walks and talks

The Friends’ monthly free public walks, weekly informal bird walks, and our talks with walks for members all continued to be popular and well-attended, particularly the Dawn Chorus and Boxing Day walks.

Volunteer Community Rangers (“VCRs”)

TRP started a three-year trial of VCRs in spring 2019 following a research-based proposal from the Friends.  There are now over 50 volunteer community rangers in Richmond and Bushy Parks and the number is likely to double in 2020.  We and the Friends of Bushy Park continue to be involved.  With their highly visible orange uniforms, their role is to educate visitors about the Parks and particularly about behaviour that is harmful to the Park and its wildlife.

PLANS FOR THE FUTURE

The Friends plans to maintain its activities broadly along the present lines.  A major priority in 2020 will be conservation projects associated with the Year of the Tree.  These will include protection of veteran trees, planting of hawthorn, blackthorn, goat's willow and fruit trees and fencing of gorse enclosures, which provides year-round nectar for invertebrates, and is a refuge and nesting site for many species of birds.

This will require funding of about £75,000, which will be funded by the Friends and surpluses generated by the Visitor Centre.

In addition, the Friends will continue to support TRP in the implementation of the Volunteer Rangers and other activities.  The Friends will also continue to campaign strongly to protect Richmond Park against threats to its peace, natural beauty and wildlife, in particular from planned developments at Heathrow and developments on the periphery of the Park that could have an adverse impact on the Park.

What we did in 2018

The Friends had another excellent year, raising money for a large conservation project to restore elm trees in the Park, funding four other conservation projects, continuing to grow its volunteer litter-picking group, helping in the adoption of Volunteer Community Rangers in the Park and developing a new website.

However, we continue to struggle to protect the Park against the rapidly increasing number of visitors who are encouraged by social and mainstream media.  Deer harassment is widespread and indeed many people come just to see, and get close to, the deer.

We continue to educate people about how to treat the Park through our film and our Tread Lightly message, but it is an uphill battle.  We hope that the new Volunteer Rangers will help to tackle the worst aspects of visitor behaviour.

Elm Walk

The Friends worked with The Royal Parks (“TRP”) to create a new Elm Walk of 48 trees along the path leading from Petersham Gate.  The project is intended to re-establish elms in Richmond Park using a hybrid resistant to Dutch Elm disease and provide a habitat for the White-letter Hairstreak butterfly.  TRP designed the walk and managed the tree planting, while the Friends marketed them to potential sponsors and ran four “planting” days when donors were able to hold small ceremonies.  We successfully found sponsors for all 47 trees and raised over £80,000 to fund the project, with the surplus going to other conservation projects in the Park.  The first tree in the Walk is in the name of our patron Sir David Attenborough.  The trustees are very grateful to all the sponsors and to the volunteers who organised the appeal.

Conservation Projects

The Friends funded four conservation projects in the Park during the year, often jointly with the Visitor Centre and sometimes with TRP also.  They included:

  • the permanent fencing of Ham Gate Pond which, after its restoration and the removal of invasive weeds, has become a haven for dragon/damselflies;
  • fencing to protect the Pen Ponds shore line and its wildfowl from deer and dogs;
  • fencing and planting in Pen Ponds Plantation to create a new deer-proof area along its land border where a native hedge has been planted, creating a new habitat for birds and insects; and
  • permanent fencing around the gorse enclosures near Holly Lodge which have become a very successful bird habitat since they were created ten years ago.

Unfortunately, the second stage of the Beverley Brook restoration was delayed into 2019, to avoid harming the skylark areas.

Volunteer Community Rangers

Over the last three years the Friends has worked on the idea of Park Rangers to help deal with the impact on the Park of rapidly increasing visitor numbers, particularly as police numbers have declined so drastically; this included researching similar places such as the Peak District and Dartmoor National Parks.  Discussion with TRP settled on a plan for Volunteer Community Rangers to educate the public and tackle inappropriate behaviour.  TRP have now implemented that plan and recruited and trained volunteers, including some Friends’ members, for a trial this Easter and a larger scheme in the summer.  We think the Rangers could have an enormous impact on problems such deer harassment.

Visitor Centre

Some 60 volunteers staff and organise the Park’s Visitor Centre (the “VC”), which provides information about the Park and items for sale, with the surplus funding Park conservation projects.  The VC is open 364 days, from 10am to 4 pm in summer and 11 am to 3 pm in winter.  In 2018 the VC had 55,000 visitors and £66,000 in sales.  Park-related products developed by the Friends – calendar, Christmas and greeting cards, DVD, books and merchandise – contribute about half of the VC’s surplus.  We introduced collapsible re-usable coffee cups for sale to reduce plastic usage in the Park.  Sadly, Mary Davies and Liz Hunt, who have been responsible for leading and developing the VC for the last nine years, stepped down at the end of the year: they will be sorely missed.  The VC is a key to the Friends objective to educate the public about the special nature of the Park and to help visitors to appreciate its ecology, wildlife and heritage.

Litter-picking

We now have a well-established and substantial team of over 50 litter-picking volunteers working in the Adopt-an-Area scheme.  People adopt one of 29 areas, covering the whole of the Park, and pick litter at least once a week when they are walking there.  In addition, there are roaming litter-pickers and some who concentrate on particular areas such as roadsides.  Individuals, couples, friends, in one case a whole young family have adopted and identify with their area and there is a waiting list for areas!  It’s a tribute to the team and especially to Steve Sandham, who set up the scheme, that it is now being copied in other parks, including Wimbledon Common.

Practical conservation work

This team of 20-30 volunteers, does hands-on conservation and continues to work every Saturday in the autumn and winter months removing rhododendron ponticum in Pen Ponds Plantation.  During the year, it completed clearing the deer accessible areas and, after the new deer-proof fencing was installed (see conservation projects above) helped to plant the new hedge along the border of the Plantation.  It has also been involved in coppicing the gorse in the newly fenced gorse enclosures.  A small sub-group of volunteers – the Beverley Brook Volunteer Group - has regularly cleared Beverley Brook of rubbish and been involved in various surveys, notably of ant hills and nocturnal small mammals.  The practical conservation group always attracts new recruits eager to work in the open air and contribute to the Park and has now adopted the Green Gym name to reflect its physical work.

New  website

The Friends now has a new website.  The previous one (and our first website) was over twelve years old and, while it still looked good and many people liked it, it was difficult for us to operate and websites have moved on considerably both technically and in what people want from them.  The new site has much greater use of high-quality photos and should be easier both for visitors and us; it also works much better on phones and tablets.  There is a new facility for people to apply and pay for Friends membership online and to apply to be a volunteer.  The Trustees are very grateful to Steve Sandham and his team for their hard work and to the web developer, Blue Flamingo in Twickenham.

Volunteering

We now have about 230 volunteer posts.  This includes staffing the Visitor Centre, practical conservation work, the Discoverers education programme, litter-picking, walks and courses, Park monitoring and of course, the 25-30 volunteers involved in organising the Friends itself.  Volunteer teams are largely self-managing and we keep the central direction “light touch” with minimum bureaucracy, while still meeting statutory requirements such as H&S and GDPR.  The Trustees estimate that volunteers contribute 14,000 hours a year, worth nearly £150,000 based on the London Living Wage, to conservation and public education in the Park.  Once again, the Trustees would like to thank the many volunteers who have contributed so much during the year.

Campaigning

The Friends regularly campaigns on issues affecting the Park, using a variety of approaches, from behind-the-scenes lobbying to public campaigns.  As we mention above, our work over the last two to three years on Park Rangers bore fruit in 2018.  Two Trustees, Vivienne Press and Nick Coleman, undertook research on signage, including an inventory of signs in the Park (we counted over 1200 of which 300 are environmental) and signage best practice in National Parks in the US, and elsewhere, and this has helped to prompt TRP’s current signage review.  Our successful public campaign in 2017/18 for increased protection of the view from King Henry’s Mound to St Paul’s had its first practical impact in the autumn when the Olympicopolis development at Stratford announced a reduction in the height of its two towers and more developments followed suit.  In contrast we unsuccessfully objected to two residential developments just outside Roehampton Gate that will add significantly to light pollution in the Park.

Other areas

The Friends film “Richmond Park – National Nature Reserve”, narrated by Sir David Attenborough, has now been viewed over 100,000 times on YouTube and another 400,000 times on the TV channel London Live which broadcast it three times over the 2018 Christmas period.  We have also shown it at thirty schools in the surrounding three boroughs.

We now have three sponsors - Russell-Cooke, Thames Water and The Property Partnership.  They have their logo on all our communications, as well as other FRP publicity about what they do.  Sponsorship provides us with a steady annual income of £7,500 that means we can plan ahead for funding conservation projects.  We are very grateful to the three organisations for their support.

We offered over 20 public walks and courses (a talk and a walk) for adults, i.e. nearly two a month, with large numbers turning out for the Boxing Day walk and some courses.  We are extending this to include more talks without the walk and tours of areas of the Park.  We will keep the public walks free as a key part of achieving the Friends charitable objectives.

Discoverers, our education programme for young families, held activities such as Bat Watch and Fungi Art Workshop, but had to postpone some events because of poor weather.  Two of the Discoverers families became involved as Butterfly Surveyors and we would like to encourage young families to become more involved with the Park in this way.

GDPR - We made changes to our data protection to meet the new GDPR rules.  The rules seem to have been designed for large organisations and there was no relevant practical government guidance.  It caused us (and other small charities) a lot of work for little benefit since we already had tight data protection.  Our basic principles remain that we never share our membership and volunteer data with outside bodies, we have tight internal rules on who can see what data and we quickly unsubscribe people if they ask us.

The Friends’ membership showed a small (3%) increase to 1780 memberships or 2600 members (counting one member for an individual subscription and two for a household subscription).  Our turnover of members is very low at about 8%, implying our members stay with us for an average of 12 years.

Plans for the future

The Friends plans to maintain its activities broadly along the present lines.  Our priorities in 2019 include developing a three-year plan for our funding of conservation projects, bringing in new people to help run the Friends, finalising the improvements in our volunteering process and helping TRP where necessary to implement the Rangers and signage improvements.  We will also campaign strongly to protect Richmond Park against threats to its peace, natural beauty and wildlife, of which the latest in 2019 is likely to be Heathrow and its flights paths.

What we did in 2017

The Friends had an excellent year with the completion and launch of its film about Richmond Park with Sir David Attenborough, the development of a substantial volunteer litter-picking group and a big increase in donations and funds available for conservation projects.  However, we struggle to protect the Park against the rapidly increasing number of visitors; the worst aspect this year was large-scale deer harassment by the public.  The film, with its Tread Lightly message is our attempt to educate people about how to treat the Park but we are fighting a wave of mainstream and social media encouraging people to visit it.  We want visitors to come but not at the expense of the Park’s fabric and wildlife.

Film

The Friends film “Richmond Park – National Nature Reserve” was launched in April at the Royal Geographical Society.  Narrated by Sir David Attenborough and filmed by George Chan and Gavin Thurston, both of whom have worked with Sir David on his wildlife productions such as Planet Earth, its aim is to change people’s perception of the Park from seeing it as just a local park to valuing it as a unique place with a rich ecology and wildlife that should be protected.  Over 600 people, including 250 schoolchildren, attended the launch, which was managed by 50 volunteers and hosted by Sir Trevor McDonald.  It featured Sir David himself, Lloyd Grossman the Chair of The Royal Parks (TRP) and Julian Glover the actor, who read David Harsent’s lovely poem about the Park, commissioned by the Friends.  The 20 minute film and the three minute social media version has now been seen by nearly 200,000 people in the six screenings by the TV channel London Live and online.  A DVD of the film and the launch event is on sale at the Visitor Centre and we have offered a free copy to all schools in the three boroughs surrounding the Park.  We continue to promote it as the centrepiece of our Tread Lightly campaign.

Litter-picking

Begun by three members, including one of the Trustees, the Friends new volunteer litter-picking has quickly grown into a substantial activity and contribution to protecting the Park.  It started with a Spring Clean of the Park in March undertaken by 85 volunteers to coincide with Keep Britain Tidy’s annual event.  Because many volunteers wanted more regular litter-picking, we set up Adopt-an-Area, whereby people adopt one of 29 areas covering the whole of the Park and pick litter at least once a week when they are walking there.  Individuals, couples, friends, in one case a whole young family have adopted and identify with their area; there is now a waiting list for areas! We thank everyone involved for its great success.

Finances and conservation projects

The Friends had a very successful year financially.  We received large, unexpected donations from Thames Water, two local trusts and a legacy, totalling over £40,000.  More expected was higher income from membership fees, merchandise and sponsorship, all which we had been working on for some time.  The donations and increased income allow us to fund more conservation projects but our ability to get new projects started has inevitably lagged behind the increase in funds available, leaving us with a large balance in our bank account at the end of the year.  We have now agreed with TRP to fund three new projects in 2018 with another two possible projects in the pipeline.

Volunteering

We now have about 230 volunteer posts.  This includes staffing the Visitor Centre, practical conservation work, the Discoverers education programme, litter-picking, walks and courses, Park monitoring, events such as local fairs and the film launch, Oak Processionary Moth nest detection on behalf of The Royal Parks, our communications and publications and, of course, the 25-30 volunteers involved in organising the Friends itself.  The History Project was wound down, having completed its work of cataloguing and putting online the 4000 items of material about the Park in the Hearsum Collection.  The Trustees estimate that its volunteers contribute over 12,000 hours a year, worth nearly £120,000 based on the London Living Wage, to conservation and public education in the Park.  Once again, the Trustees would like to thank the many volunteers who have contributed so much during the year.

Visitor Centre

Some 60 volunteers staff and organise the day-to-day operations of the Visitor Centre, which provides information about the Park and items for sale related to the Park or nature and wildlife, with surplus from sales applied to conservation projects.  In 2017 the Centre was open 364 days, at least from 11 am to 3 pm and had over 55,000 visitors.  With increased visitor numbers, information and merchandise, the Centre needs more space.  So we were disappointed that the Heritage Lottery Fund turned down the application for funding from the Hearsum Collection for a new Heritage Pavilion, of which a larger Visitor Centre would be a major part.  The Visitor Centre is a key to the Friends objective to educate the public about the special nature of the Park and to help them to appreciate its ecology, wildlife and heritage.

Campaigning and monitoring

The Friends regularly campaigns on issues affecting the Park, using a variety of approaches, from behind-the-scenes lobbying to public campaigns.  We continued to work with Ride London and the London Duathlon to reduce the number of gel packs and strips discarded in the Park by cyclists in these events and the number did reduce in the 2017 events.  We now have material about the Park and Tread Lightly on their websites and provided to participants.  We also worked with TRP and the police to combat the recent large increase in deer harassment, sometimes acting as spotters for the police, and have made a proposal to TRP for volunteer Park rangers or ambassadors at busy week-ends to educate the public about issues such as deer harassment and off-track cycling.  Such a scheme can also replace our regular monitoring of events and problems in the Park.

Other areas

The Friends’ conservation volunteers have nearly finished their work removing rhododendron and planting trees in Pond Plantation; the Friends is funding fencing to protect replacement planting from deer.  Our Discoverers programme for young families is in its fifth year and had events such as Park in the Dark sky-watching, a deer “safari”, a bat watch, tree identification, fungi art and an Isabella trail.

We also offered over 20 public walks and courses for adults, i.e. nearly two a month, with large numbers turning out for the Boxing Day walk and some courses.  The weekly Friday informal bird-watching walks, which were started in 2014, continue to be very popular.  The Trustees intend to keep the public walks free and see them as a key part of achieving the Friends’ charitable objectives.

The Friends’ calendars, Christmas and other cards continue to sell well through the Visitor Centre and merchandise (tea towels, caps, hats, bags) which we started in 2016 has sold reasonably well.  Surplus funds go to conservation projects in the Park.

Russell-Cooke, the local law firm, renewed their sponsorship for a further two years and we have added Thames Water as a new sponsor, with a third sponsor likely in 2018.  Each sponsor pays £2,500 a year to have their logo on our communications and some other benefits.  Sponsorship provides us with a steady annual income that means we can plan ahead for conservation projects without relying on income from donations, which can vary substantially from year to year, or on specific appeals

Membership - after two years of decrease following the change in subscription fee in January 2015, the Friends’ membership showed a 7% increase to 1720 memberships or 2525 members (counting one member for an individual subscription and two for a household subscription) by end 2017 – higher than before the subscription increase.

Plans for the future

The Friends plans to maintain its activities broadly along the present lines.  Our priorities in 2018 include continuing the Tread Lightly campaign with the film as the core of it, strengthening our volunteering and replacing our website.  There will be a new Elm Walk with people able to sponsor a tree, which the Friends are managing with TRP; it is intended to re-establish elms in Richmond Park using a Dutch Elm disease-resistant hybrid.  We will also work closely with TRP and the police to tackle visitor behaviour, especially deer harassment.

What we did in 2016

The Friends made good progress in 2016 with a record performance from the Visitor Centre, the production of a film about Richmond Park with Sir David Attenborough and two successful large public campaigns.  However, we are struggling to protect the Park against the rapidly increasing number of visitors as Richmond Park becomes famous, through social media, to Londoners and other visitors.  A growing part of our activities is devoted to educating visitors about the Park and their impact on its ecology and wildlife, but it became clear in 2016 that we have a long way to go to catch up with this new development.

Volunteering

The Friends’ volunteering effort is now stable at around 200 volunteers over eight programmes.  The largest is the Visitor Centre, which is staffed wholly by 60 Friends’ volunteers, followed by 40 Friends’ volunteers who detect Oak Processionary Moth nests on behalf of The Royal Parks’ programme.  Other programmes are practical conservation work, walks and courses, the history of the Park, Park monitoring, support at fairs, the AGM and similar events, and the Discoverers Education Programme.  There are also many people involved in organising the Friends’ activities themselves.  The Trustees estimate that volunteers contribute 10,000 hours a year, worth nearly £95,000 based on the London Living Wage, to conservation and public education in the Park.  Once again, the Trustees would like to thank the many volunteers who have contributed so much during the year.

Visitor Centre

Some 60 Friends’ volunteers staff and organise the day-to-day operations of the Park’s Visitor Centre, which provides information about the Park and items for sale related to the Park or nature and wildlife.  In 2016 the Centre was open 364 days of the year, at least from 11 am to 3 pm.  The Centre had 52,000 visitors, an increase of 25% over 2015 (and 60% over 2014) – a remarkable achievement.  The Visitor Centre is a key to the Friends’ objective to educate the public about the special nature of Richmond Park and help the public to appreciate its ecology, wildlife and heritage.

Film 

In late 2015, the Friends started production of a film about Richmond Park with Sir David Attenborough.  The aim is to change people’s perception of the Park from seeing it as just a local park to valuing it as a National Nature Reserve with a rich ecology and wildlife that should be protected.  The 20 minute film (with a three minute “short” for social media) is being led by film-maker George Chan and others who have worked with Sir David on Planet Earth.  It tells the story of different aspects of the ecology and wildlife and the impact of visitors on them, ending with a request to viewers to Tread Lightly.  The total cost is £50,000 of which the Friends is funding half and donations from the Kaye Pemberton Trust, the Visitor Centre and the Hearsum Collection the other half. It will be launched in late April 2017, with the launch event sponsored by Thames Water.

Campaigning

The Friends regularly campaigns on issues affecting the Park, using a variety of approaches, from behind-the-scenes lobbying to public campaigns.  In 2016 we had two successful public campaigns.  The first was about gel packs and strips discarded in the Park by cyclists in Ride London and the London Duathlon, which can be eaten by deer leading to digestive problems and even death.  After media coverage, both race organisers committed to tackle the problem in their 2017 events.  The second was about the destruction of the protected view from King Henry’s Mound in the Park to St Paul’s by a 42-story development at Stratford.  Our protests received widespread media and political support and the Mayor of London committed to change the rules on protected views to prevent it happening again.  We also worked on less public campaigns such as the proposed cycling Quietway and planned developments around the Park; we continue to work with the Park’s Bird Group on skylark protection.

Monitoring

A group of Friends’ volunteers regularly monitors what is happening in the Park.  We monitor the three annual large sporting events – Ride London, the London Duathlon and Human Race - and produce reports that we and The Royal Parks can use to discuss problems with the organisers.  We also monitor problems in the Park generally on busy week-ends.  On two week-ends in spring we collected data on the number of actual breaches of Park regulations – a sort of “crime survey”.  These were many times more (in some cases 30 times more) than those recorded by official police statistics, and provided data to support the case for increased police manning at week-ends.

Practical conservation

The Friends makes a practical contribution to conservation through its volunteer team who undertake regular Saturday sessions in autumn and winter removing rhododendron and planting trees.  We also continue to fund conservation projects, including part funding of a lichen survey and a third tern raft on Pen Ponds.  A tern raised and tagged on a Park tern raft funded by the Friends was found in West Africa on its annual migration.

Friends publishing and merchandise

The Friends started significant publishing in 2011 with the Guide to Richmond Park and Family Trails; both are still selling slowly through the Visitor Centre.  Subsequently we have produced Christmas cards, postcards and the Friends’ calendar.  In 2016 we sold 1200 calendars and it was used by our sponsor Russell-Cooke Solicitors to send to their clients.  We also trialled a range of merchandise specially designed for us – tea towels, caps, hats, bags - which has sold reasonably well.  The surplus goes to conservation projects in the Park.

Discoverers

This programme for young families is in its fourth year and has a mailing list of 150 families and a committed team of volunteers.  Popular events included: Bat Watch, Fascinating Fungi, a Bones & Feathers Workshop and a Supermoon Watch in November.  Most events are free, and open to non-members, though an increasing number are choosing to join the Friends.

Walks and courses

These and the Visitor Centre are the public face of the Friends.  In 2016 the Friends offered over 20 public walks and courses (a half-hour talk on a topic followed by a walk), i.e. nearly two a month.  Over 80 people turned out for the Boxing Day walk and a similar number for a course on veteran trees in November.  In addition, the weekly Friday informal birdwatching walks, which were started in 2014, have proved immensely popular, with some attendances in excess of 30 people, even in the winter months.  The Trustees intend to keep the public walks free and see them as a key part of achieving the Friends’ charitable objectives.

Membership

In 2016 we continued to get some fall-out from the increase in the membership subscription in January 2015 from £6 to £10 for an individual and from £10 to £15 for a household.  The Friends now has 1610 memberships or 2360 members (counting one member for an individual subscription and two for a household subscription) – a fall of 2.5% on 2015.  Overall the net loss in members since January 2015 has been quite small (about 6%), suggesting that members still regard their subscription to the Friends as good value.  We are now gaining more members than we are losing.

Plans for the future

The Friends plans to continue its activities broadly along the present lines, but with a greater emphasis on protecting the Park from the impact of increasing visitor numbers and the issue of the sustainability of the Park in the long-term.  We plan to launch the film in late April and follow up with a campaign focusing on “Tread Lightly”, including aspects such as deer harassment and skylarks.  The Trustees plan to strengthen our volunteering effort further and to fund more conservation projects.
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